Artemis Fowl: The Koan Complication
by LJemima
Summary: Sequel to The Magic Paradox. Artemis Fowl has made a huge mistake. Not only in trying to overcome his amnesia, but in his own plan. Now that his memories are starting to come back, they are in a strange place, meeting people they never expected to. A/H
1. Silver

A/N: Due to popular demand, and largely a few loyal fans, I have decided to post this much earlier than expected. Please note that this is the sequel to my other fanfic Artemis Fowl: The Magic Paradox. You do not necessarily have to read that to read this fanfic, however, the Magic Paradox gives context to this story, and you may be somewhat confused if you haven't read it. I hope you enjoy this story, particularly as I intend to bring back a few characters you thought you would never see again.

Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl and all related characters and events. No copyright infringement intended.

* * *

Artemis Fowl: The Koan Complication

**Prologue**

The Fowls and the Butlers had sat down for a wonderful gourmet creamy pasta dinner. Take out.

Not your usual Fowl family dinner, but Butler had his hands full.

Butler knew only a small fraction of the story, and no one knew what had truly happened last night. Not even Artemis. Or so everyone thought.

* * *

**A Faded Photograph**

Artemis realized he had made a terrible mistake. Not only in trying to overcome his amnesia, but in his own plan.

"Silver! Put on some silver!" he yelled, knocking his chair to the ground. He grabbed the crutches beside him, wincing.

Already the world had begun to fade around him.

Artemis moved as fast as he could, he had to anchor Holly.

Normally Artemis would not be willing to exert himself physically, but this was quite likely life or death for him, and for Holly.

As he hurled himself up the stairs on the crutches, the stairs faded more and more.

The small ornately carved figure on the post at the top of the stairs became pale and ghostly.

The figure was a small fairy, and her face became paler along with the world around her.

Artemis yelled, "Holly! Silver! Put on some silver!"

He could hear Butler yelling in the dining room. He could only hope his parents grabbed onto something. He was sure they were all equally confused. Even he didn't truly know what was happening. He had the feeling he was about to find out.

He was on the second last step now, and Holly was running out of the door, towards him, shock on her face.

She had nearly reached him when his crutch slipped on the top stair.

Both crutches slipped from his hands, and he saw Holly's hands clawing the empty air above him.

As he fell, Holly's horrified face and the staircase above him faded into pale and dull colours.

Artemis cried out as he fell backwards, and hit his head hard on the stair.

Holly's face blurred, and then it all went black.

* * *

Julius Root's fingers began tapping rhythmically on his chest. His eyes opened groggily.

He gasped, sitting up abruptly and clutching at his chest. His heart was beating. No. This was impossible. Did the pony bring him back to life?

Nah, he wouldn't do that, Root thought, sinking back contentedly.

This was really strange. He was definitely dead. He remembered his very last moments.

Holly hadn't listened to him. That elf never did, she did what she thought was right. Really, it had usually been what Root had thought was right too, but you didn't get to be Commander doing whatever the D'Arvit you wanted to do.

He remembered, Opal had been crushing his ribs with her strange device. Holly had tried to hit the sweet spot, but there wasn't one. The pain had been white-hot by this time, and he had wanted to just pass out, and let it go, but he had held on to that last bit of consciousness. He had to.

Opal had taunted Holly one last time, and finally she had flown away, through the chute.

In his last moments, he had gone up in flames. The flames seemed to come from his very inside, out. It had been pain like he had never felt before, but it had only lasted a few seconds. There had been nothing more after that. Until now.

He must be in some kind of afterlife. That was ridiculous, no fairy religion had an afterlife. They lived for several hundred years, then their magic and body was recycled and returned to the earth.

That was it, that was the end. But here he was.

He opened his eyes again, finally taking in his surroundings.

In front of him stood the solid wrought iron gates to Fowl manor. _Fowl_ was scrawled in dramatic lettering across the top. Why the D'Arvit was he in front of Fowl manor?

He could see the grass just beyond the gate was as dully coloured as the black painted gate itself. The grass was the colour of his own dull green LEP jumpsuit.

Finally, he looked up at the sky. It was a horrible gray colour, as if it had faded. There were no clouds.

Even as he thought this, a few wispy gray clouds blew across the sky.

Something truly strange was going on here, and Root knew he wasn't about to figure it out.

The iron gate creaked open. There was no wind.

Root knew exactly who would know what was going on.

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A/N: Thank you very much for reading! I would particularly like you to comment now. As I said, I intend to bring back characters you thought you would never see again. Obviously, one of these is Root. It is still open for some other characters, so please comment if you would like your favourite AF character to be in it, and I will do my best. Let me know, who is your favourite villian or minor character in the series?

Also, I think that people enjoy writing flames far more than they enjoy writing reviews to stories they enjoyed. I don't want to be a jerk, but I feel that I deserve a few more reviews than I have been getting. Please review, even if it is only to critique. Unfortunately, I have decided that I will not update this story until I receive 10 quality reviews. Review, even if it's just to say thanks, or that you dislike something, anything.

Thank you.


	2. Limbo

Chapter 2

Holly watched Artemis fall in front of her. He fell backwards down the stairs, hitting his head, hard.

Her own hands merely scrabbled in front of her. She thought she had had him. She was supposed to help him.

She had been so close to catching him, it had seemed as if her hands had traveled right through him. She just couldn't catch him.

When he hit his head on the stair, she cried out, squeezing her eyes tight.

When Holly opened them, he had disappeared. He was completely gone. No body lay at the bottom of the stairs.

Strangely enough, Butler hadn't come either. It was about to get a lot stranger.

Suddenly she felt sick. Really sick. It felt as if she would vomit. As if she had entered a human dwelling without permission.

But that law had been abolished years ago, and she definitely had permission to be in Artemis' house.

Suddenly, she had a horrible, blinding migraine. She pressed her hands to her head, hoping something, anything would ease the pain. She didn't even feel her own body sway back and forth. She fell, head over heels, down the stairs, eyes still closed. Then, she passed out, the pain releasing her.

* * *

Artemis Fowl Junior felt his mind finally coming to focus. His eyes flashed open. He had fallen down the stairs. He looked around him.

Strange. He was in the grass outside Fowl manor. How had he gotten there.

Artemis stood up slowly. He found that his leg felt fine, as if it was never broken.

He looked around himself oddly. He knew this place. The landscape was barren and faded, like an old photograph.

People walked in the distance, moving closer and closer until he could make out some of their faces.

Beside him, Holly froze. So, she'd seen him too. Artemis wasn't crazy.

Artemis recognized every one of the people coming towards him. Including one he had never expected to see again.

Commander Julius Root.

The great Artemis Fowl had finally been bested. By a combination of crutches and stairs. Seriously.

Artemis groaned, whacking his own forehead. Holly raised her eyebrows.

Wait. Holly. If he was dead, she must be dead too.

He examined the people coming towards him more closely.

Root, definitely Root. His face was an unusually flesh toned. A very natural hue. Well, that explained it. He was definitely dead.

Beside Root was Mulch Diggums. Mulch? He was pretty sure Mulch wasn't dead. Then again, he hardly knew what had happened in the couple of days, and most of that only from one Butler had told him.

Perhaps Butler didn't know the whole story.

Then it all came flooding back.

"_What was the last thing I said to you Butler? In the warehouse? What did I say!"_

Trunk. Something about the trunk.

Paradox. Silver.

He had told them all to put on silver. Why?

That was it. He wanted to anchor them to their own time.

Artemis Fowl had made a mistake.

Butler stepped up beside him.

"So. What was it?" Artemis inquired calmly.

"Time machine. Set. Trunk."

Trunk. Artemis Fowl Junior had been in the trunk. He had been left in the trunk.

He had met his past self in the past, meddled with events that had already happened, and he had never resolved it. He had never met his past self in the time line, as he would have naturally, and his past self had been left there, in the trunk, to die.

Artemis realized something else, another mistake. He had begun to remember something, at that dinner table. It had been a glimmer of the memory of what had truly occurred that night.

This had been unavoidable. It was, in itself, a paradox. If he hadn't remembered Artemis in the trunk, it would have happened. If he had remembered, he would have contradicted the paradox that depended on him thinking his friends had been dead.

Essentially, Artemis Fowl had made such a mistake, he had destroyed the very fabric of time.

More than destroyed, unraveled it into small threads.

Artemis slapped himself in the head again.

Holly grabbed his arm.

"Artemis Fowl! What the D'Arvit have you done?"

"Does this place look familiar to you at all, Holly?" he asked her, monotonously.

She looked around, "No, this is not a time for guessing games, Artemis!" She quieted down. "Do you see him too?"

"Yes."

Artemis watched Butler help Juliet up, from where she lay in the grass. Another one. It occurred to Artemis that there would be many more people here. Perhaps the people here were the people connected to the error he had created, the unfixable paradox.

_Oh no,_ Artemis thought._ This is bad, this is so very bad_.

Before he could finish his thoughts, he was pinned to the ground by a ferocious pixie.

"Look, Fowl! I don't know where we are, or how we got here, but I'll kill you in about five seconds if you don't explain!" Opal spat in his face.

He opened his mouth to explain, but Opal had changed her mind. She clutched her tiny fist on the gun strapped to her belt, pulling it from the holster.

Holly reacted, even before Butler. She blasted Opal Koboi with her neutrino, sending her spinning a few feet off of Artemis, and across the pale grass.

Artemis got up, dusting off his trousers. Holly grinned at him for a moment, before she took off across the field.

He watched as Holly nearly bowled over an astonished Root.

Root's face turned a healthy, rosy hue.

"This is not appropriate behavior for an officer, Captain Short." Root stated, softly.

She pulled back from him, tears sparkling in her eyes.

"What does it matter to you! You're dead!" she spluttered.

Root pulled her back in a huge fatherly hug.

"I missed you," Holly whispered. "You were the best Commander the LEP ever had. You were like my father."

"I know." He replied. "I missed you too."

Artemis smiled sadly on the other side of the field.

What had he done? He had led them all to this terrible place. To limbo. He had no idea what could happen here.

He was sure, however, of one thing. They couldn't stay here long.

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A/N: This story will be 1000 times better than the Magic Paradox. The Magic Paradox was like a mere prologue to the Koan Complication. I am excited. In fact, I'm thinking of perhaps combining the two. Or something. But I don't want to lose my reviews :(

By the way, does anyone know what a Koan is? It'll help you to figure out the main plot of this story.

Thank you once again for your comments, favourites and story watches. Please keep it up, your feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. :D


	3. Obsessive

Chapter 3

Artemis sent those few people around him on a search party around this strange place.

He had to explain it. All he could, to everyone else who was stuck here.

So far he had seen Holly, Opal, Mulch, Butler, Juliet and Root. He had a bad feeling about who else he might find here.

Artemis stood alone in the center of the pale green grass at the front of Fowl manor. The sky was a pale muddy blue, cloudless.

As he thought, staring above him in awe, the grass grew, sprouting up from the ground unevenly. Weeds that had never been allowed to grow on the grounds sprouted up from nowhere.

Clouds rolled across the sky. They were dark, angry clouds which seemed to engulf all hope and determination in his heart. They consumed him, and he ran, fleeing towards the manor.

The manor appeared as if created with watercolor paints, and the colours ran together more and more as he got closer and closer to it.

When he breathlessly reached the door, it was nothing more than a crooked smear, with no handle or hinge. He banged on it desperately. He had to escape, to his own office, to his computers.

His office was his place, where he belonged. His computers, his equipment, they provided him with information, allowed him to share it. They were the only way for Artemis to do his work. What use was he without them?

They would never escape this place. His own personal limbo.

Artemis' continued to bang his hands on the door. His limbs ached, and pain shot up his hands. They burned, and he was sure they must be oozing blood.

Finally, he collapsed, his hands trailing down the door.

He inspected his long pianist's fingers. Blood would have been a relief. Blood was familiar and normal.

His hands remained spotless. They throbbed with pain, but appeared perfectly normal.

As if he had just cleaned and buffed them. Not a scratch.

He simply put his head in his hands and waited.

Self-destructive. Delusional. Obsessive. Disconnected.

All of these flashed through his head.

Every one was true.

This couldn't possibly be real.

He had some extreme form of schizophrenia.

No wonder he had thought Opal was always after him.

No wonder he had always hoped that Holly was his best friend.

Maybe. Maybe she didn't even exist.

Then there she was. Right in front of him. He lifted his head slowly looking up at her face.

Her auburn hair blew softly in the wind, and her face was in shadow.

She sat beside him. Curled up, with her head on her knees.

He yearned to touch her. To test whether she was real or not.

Surely he couldn't have imagined her? All these years.

These were not his own thoughts.

This place was messing with his mind.

"Where are we, Artemis? Why are we here?"

He stared for a moment, and she began to look concerned.

"I'll explain soon. Find anyone?"

"Yes," she replied warily. "Your parents, and Foaly. They were more than a little surprised to see the fairies."

She stared at his face, waiting for a reaction. Waiting for anything. He was silent.

"Looks like you are going to have a lot more explaining to do than you had planned."

She placed her hand on his arm.

"You know," she hesitated. "If the last few years have taught me anything, it's that I should never underestimate you. Whatever is going on here, you'll get us out. I know it."

Artemis turned his head away. She had no idea. There was no escape from this place. This was it. The end of the line.

He'd at least make it as comfortable as possible for all of them. He'd make them think he was going to save them all.

At least they would live their last bit of time happily. With hope.

That's what kept you alive. Hope.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review if you enjoyed my efforts, and even if you didn't!

And.. The plot thickens, for the millionth time...


	4. Explanation

Chapter 4

Artemis paced back and forth, uncharacteristically nervous as he spoke.

"Moth-"

He took a deep breath and grabbed Holly's hand, offering it to his mother and father.

"This is Holly Short. My best friend, and an elf."

Holly smiled nervously. She had never expected to meet Artemis' parents. Especially not like this.

Then again, she hadn't even slightly suspected any of the things that had happened in the past few days.

Angeline Fowl grinned.

"Hello, Miss?"

"Short. Just call me Holly though."

"Holly," Angeline grinned. "I know you, I've heard all about you. Welcome to our home."

Angeline looked around herself. She looked lost. Like a small child in a grocery store.

Artemis Senior stared at the grass at his feet. He looked blank, gone. Like he this was a dream he couldn't wake from.

* * *

Artemis straightened his tie. This was his element, a seminar. It was to be a perfectly logical, intelligent explanation.

The problem was that this wasn't perfectly logical, and he didn't have a full explanation.

His father hadn't said a word since he had arrived here. Not a single word. He hadn't even looked at Artemis. Maybe he thought he was crazy, or maybe that his son was crazy, Artemis didn't like either.

Artemis Junior checked his watch. They should be here by now. Not that time really meant anything in this strange place. Artemis wondered if a thousand years might have passed back home, or no time at all.

He stared straight ahead, patiently, as Holly plunked herself down beside him. Then his parents sat down, his father looking as blank as he had earlier. Butler and Juliet came silently, Artemis barely noticed them sit. Foaly and Root came together, uncharacteristically quiet, and finally, Opal sat behind them all, her eyes meaningfully averted from Artemis', and into the distance.

"Hello, everyone." Artemis began, "Welcome to this place. I'm sure you're all wondering where exactly 'this' is, and that is just why you're here. I will explain as best as I can. Some of the things I am about to say are not fact, as I don't even remember them. Most of what I am about to tell you is pieced together from what Butler has told me from my forgotten past, and from my own knowledge and theories on time travel."

He paused, looking for something, any reaction from them. For a moment nothing, then Opal's eyes looked at him for a second, just a second. She understood, she already knew what he was going to say. She remembered.

"Three evenings ago, my parents held a large party at the manor. They invited many guests, and during this time, my mother's priceless blue diamond necklace was stolen. She was devastated, and I decided that I must get it back for her. I trawled though a few hundred guests, narrowing it down to ten prime suspects. I was prepared to investigate further when I received a call. It was a man, telling me he had the necklace, and was prepared to return it to me, in exchange for a large amount of cash. My mother overheard and demanded that she must come as well as Butler and Juliet, who were needed for protection. This is where my memories stop being truth. The rest of the story has been pieced together."

Artemis paused for dramatic effect. Holly was staring up at him with her huge eyes, hanging on to every word. She thought he was good for wanting to get his mother's necklace back. She was hanging on to that hope that he was really a good person. That was about to change.

"Here the story splits into two. One story, is what might have happened, and the only memory I have of this time."

He continued, "Holly was aboveground on a mission, and volunteered to help. I asked her to watch from the roof, and Juliet, Butler, mother, and I went in to the building."

Artemis clenched his fists, closing his eyes for a second. Preparing himself for what he had to say next.

"I went in first, completely oblivious to any danger. I never saw it coming."

"I reached towards a package, sitting on a crate in the warehouse. Butler saw the glint of a gun, as Opal aimed at me, and fired."

He took a deep shaky breath.

"Butler dived in front of me, taking the shot square in the chest. It was instantly fatal."

Artemis looked again at his audience. Butler's face had hardened, it gave nothing away. Opal was hiding her face. She could be laughing or crying. Artemis didn't care at this point.

"She quickly shot my Juliet, as she tried to save my mother. Mother was next, as she ran towards me."

"Holly heard the shots, and broke a hole through the ceiling of the warehouse. Opal shot her as she took it all in. She died instantly, falling to the ground."

He heard his mother sobbing against his father's shoulder.

Holly stared at him. She just stared for a moment, her hazel and blue eyes widening.

Then she got up quickly and strode away. She didn't ever look back.

Artemis began to set off after her. He had to apologize, he had to try to make her feel better.

"Artemis." A voice boomed after him, harsh and demanding. "Please continue."

Artemis turned. His father's eyes glinted dangerously. Artemis noticed for the first time that he had both his legs. There was no prosthetic leg. As if it had never happened.

There was no injury, no change in this world.

"In my memory, they had all been killed. So I created a time machine constructed of a combination between fairy and mudman technology. A perfect combination of science and magic. I traveled back in time, locking my past self in the trunk of the Bentley, and saving all my friends. I went face to face with Opal, knocking her and myself to the ground, and she shot me. I managed to utter a few words to Butler before I passed out. I told him; 'Time machine, trunk'."

"Butler found the time machine, and managed to send me back to moments after I had left, the coordinates which I had previously set in the machine. He did however, miss the very important second part of my message."

He paused yet again, to make sure everyone was listening. They were hooked, clinging to his every word. Holly was gone, nowhere in his sight.

"Holly rushed to the manor after Butler's message, healing me. Butler told me the story of what had really happened, discovering I had amnesia, and thought they had all died."

"As I sat at dinner, I tried to remember what I had forgotten. Each memory seemed just that little bit too far away, too dark, just out of reach. A glimmer of a memory passed through my mind, and I realized something; my amnesia was the only thing that kept me from creating an unsolvable paradox, an issue in time. By thinking my friends were dead, I had saved them, so that it had never happened. I couldn't remember what had really happened, it would destroy the perfectly balanced paradox."

"There was another thing too, I had left my past self in the trunk, probably to die. He is me, and if he died, I should have. This was yet another unsolvable issue with time."

"Because of these, I created a problem in time, resulting in the destruction of it for me, and a seemingly random selection of people connected to me. We're in Limbo, a place that is in no time or place, and connected to no other time or place. Theoretically, we will remain here for an unknown amount of time, before we are drawn, one by one to random times and places, until our death."

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A/N: I know it's been a while since I updated, and I apologize! Please review if you enjoyed my efforts! :)


	5. Alright

Chapter 5

Artemis scanned the landscape around him for Holly.

It was unusual, it seemed a single square foot of grass simply repeated itself to create the entire lawn. Holly was in none of these squares.

He called out to her, but he heard nothing. Strange, he thought there wasn't enough space in this Limbo for her to be able to hide from him.

He saw a longer patch of grass move ever so slightly, close to the manor.

Artemis ran without it even occurring to him, for the second time today. If he didn't stop that soon, he'd end up building up some stamina.

As he reached her, she popped up out of the grass, like a lioness pouncing on her prey.

Artemis flinched, now he was gonna get it. To his surprise, she crushed him in a huge hug. He felt her tears make wet spots on his shirt.

"Artemis," she sobbed. "You saved me again!"

Artemis just didn't know what to say. He had caused her death and dragged them all to this horrible place, and now she was hugging him? It was too much for him to process.

Holly pulled back from him a little, looking straight into his eyes.

"Artemis, I've been thinking..."

He took a deep breath, bracing himself for what was coming. For once, he couldn't guess what she was thinking. She was usually like an open book to him.

"I... I don't think we can escape Limbo."

Artemis mulled this over for a minute. She couldn't possibly be saying that he was incapable!

No, she must mean that it simply wasn't possible, for anyone. He had believed that, but surprisingly, now he felt different.

"We are going to leave this place," he stated confidently. "There are quite a few possibilities, and the fairies can always help out with the magic side of things."

Holly's huge eyes stared up at him, they almost seemed to express pity.

"Oh Artemis, don't you get it? There is no way to escape Limbo, except for when it collapses, and we all... Pass on."

An idea came rushing back to Artemis, "Your communicator!" Why hadn't he thought of this before! It was so simple. Perhaps Limbo was slowing his mind.

"It's no use, Artemis. We already tried. All the communicators are down, fuzzy. We don't even have basic functions, on anything, whether it's human or fairy."

His shoulders dropped.

He was trying to give them hope and she was shooting him down. Why? What did she have to gain?

He looked back up at her sad eyes. There was something there. Something vaguely familiar.

"Artemis, I don't think we have much time left."

"We need to make the best of it."

Artemis' eyes were locked with hers. He couldn't tear himself away.

Holly took a deep breath, she couldn't believe she was doing this.

"Artemis, I..."

Her own heart constructed painfully as a bullet wedged itself in Artemis' heart.

She had no breath to scream.

Suddenly, her breath came back in gasps. She whirled around to see Jon Spiro grinning at her.

He didn't matter. Only Artemis.

She turned back, only to see him stumble, his eyes blank. He gasped a huge, painful shuddering breath and Holly caught him.

It took all her strength to hold him upright, and she struggled to set his head down gently in the grass.

She took a deep breath, tears running down her eyes, and mustered the last trickles of magic from deep down within herself.

But it wouldn't come.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm quite excited to get back to this story after a bit of a break, and it's going to pick up from here. :D Please review! Critique is encouraged.


	6. Wrong

A/N: Finally! Another chapter! Yay!

* * *

Chapter 6

Artemis felt emotion build up inside him.

He was wrong.

And it had cost him his life.

He was disappointed in himself. He had failed.

But he was also sad. He was missing so much. So much opportunity. And all he had done with his life is write a few books, steal huge sums of money, and discover a new species.

Great, but he had potential for so much more.

Holly, his friends, they would never know how he felt about them. He had kept those emotions deep down in his mind, no, his heart. They had been deep in his heart under lock and key.

Strangely, he felt no pain, he must have passed out, be must be dead or dreaming.

His shoulders lifted, his head coming back down onto a hard rock. His eyes fluttered open.

Holly's desperate tear stained face gazed down at him.

Ah, correct after all.

"Holly, I would appreciate if you would stop shaking me. That rock is certainly lowering my IQ a few points."

Holly glared at Artemis before enveloping him in a hug.

"Artemis Fowl," Holly murmured into his ear. "Only you could cheat death this many times. What is it now, 15?"

Artemis thought for a few milliseconds, "21, actually."

Holly laughed, pulling back to grip him by the shoulders.

"Artemis, how did you live through this one? Amaze me."

It was at this point that Spiro stamped his foot in anger.

How was it that this boy seemed able to survive anything?

Spiro aimed his gun once more.

Let's see him survive a few hundred bullets, straight through that little genius brain of his.

Spiro cocked the gun, and fired round after round into Artemis and Holly.

Holly felt the bullets sink into the back of her head and torso. She gasped, slumping forward into Artemis' arms, expecting the cold hard pain of metal, and death.

But it didn't come, she inspected a bullet sinking in to her hand.

It hit with a force that should have driven right through, yet she felt nothing.

It slowly dissipated across her hand, as if melting in to nothingness. She couldn't tell if it was disappearing, or sinking into her hand.

Either way, she felt nothing.

It was an odd thing to look at, morbid. As if her own body took harm without her knowing it.

Like she would deteriorate over time, until it caused her death. Sneaking up on her, without so much as pain as a warning.

All the more reason to not waste a moment.

She paused, her hand reaching for Artemis' face. Was this what she really wanted?

Then it all dawned on her, an epiphany.

Yes, this was exactly what she had wanted. She was cut off from anyone who would care, anyone who could fire her or resent her was either far away or about to die right alongside her.

All her worries, everything that had caused her to doubt, to resent her emotions was gone.

And she hadn't even realized it until now.

This was going to be the very hardest part.

"Artemis," she pulled back again from his arms, but not too far back.

This didn't escape Artemis' notice.

His facial expression slowly morphed into one of confusion. It didn't suit his face well.

"Artemis..." Holly began, but stopped herself.

What was she going to say?

Just outright saying it was hardly her style.

No, she always had a more radical approach. She broke the rules. She had a feeling the ones she was about to break were not written down in the Book.

Nope, these were the sort of things that fairies just would assume.

Not Holly Short.

A slow, mischievous smile spread across her face.

Surprisingly, Artemis laughed before Holly leapt forward, planting her lips on his.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading. As usual please review!


	7. Escape

Chapter 7

Artemis had scoured all of Limbo for any objects that might be of use.

In front of him sat; a Sig Sauer, Neutrino 3000, Glock, a pair of Hummingbird 2000 wings, Foaly's phone, and Holly's fairy communicator.

These objects would be vital in any other operation, but were basically useless here.

Foaly's phone and Holly's communicator got no signal at all, no alternative sattelites, or lines at all.

Artemis had even already resorted to asking Foaly if he could get a connection, but it was impossible.

Obviously they were in a completely different time, therefore completely isolated in a world occupied by no one else.

He didn't even have enough technology to create a simple bomb.

Actually, that he could do. As if it would be any use.

Artemis decided to try something else. He picked up Holly's neutrino, awkwardly squeezing his fingers into the notches meant for a smaller hand, aimed and fired.

The lazer shot appeared right to his hand, but there wasn't even a bit of redness where it should have burned right through.

He upped the setting to it's highest.

Nothing.

Not even a mere tingle, where the lazer played across his hand.

It appeared white-hot, but his hand didn't burn, nor did he feel the slightest twitch.

Neither Fairy nor human technology can cause injury here.

Artemis remembered his fists hammering on the door.

He couldn't even cause injury to himself. Using his very own fists.

It seemed that even they were in seperate times, each object and person only visible as an echo to the other.

When the weapons were shot they shot into their own time, appearing to hit him, but really hitting nothing.

Artemis frowned.

That meant his kiss with Holly hadn't been real either. It had been merely an echo of the kiss.

It had seemed so powerful.

So did Holly's punch when it landed in the side of his head.

Artemis froze for a moment waiting for pain, but it didn't come. He felt the shock of her punching him, but not a flutter of pain. Not a sting.

Holly was so angry, but her emotions were truly conflicting.

The conflicted to the point where age simply chose one to get it done with.

Her anger released now that she had hit Artemis, now it was another that shone through.

"Artemis, this isn't possible. We do not have a single Warlock, I know not a thing beyond simple healing magic!"

Artemis took a deep shuddering breath, before finally looking up at her.

"This isn't like the Limbo the demons were trapped in," he stated calmly. "This is induced by nature herself; time. It has a different escape."

"Yes, Artemis," she sneered back. "This Limbo has the added plus that suicide isn't an option!"

He stared at her for a moment, as her chest heaved with anger, and frustration, and emotion.

Before he could stop it, his lips stretched into a smile, and Artemis Fowl burst out laughing.

* * *

A/N: Aaaaand, finally, a new chapter! :D Hope you enjoyed it, although it certainly didn't make up for how long its been since I wrote one last... Please review anyways :P


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